Radical Ecological Democracyand Degrowth
Towards a Sustainable and Equitable World
Lok swaraj (people’s self-rule) “Our government in Mumbai and Delhi, we are the government in our village”
India: alternative initiatives for well-being
Water
CraftsShelter
Food
Energy
People power
LivelihoodsConservation
Village revitalisation
Urban sustainability
Learning
Health
Producer companies
Eco-swaraj: Radical ecological democracy (Radical = going to the roots, challenging the conventional)
• achieving human well-being, through: – empowering all citizens & communities to participate in
decision-making– ensuring socio-economic equity & justice – respecting the limits of the earth
– Community (at various levels) as organising principle, vs. state or private corporation
Four key ingredients …
• Direct & embedded political democracy• Economic democracy, self-sufficiency,
localisation• Social justice & equity • Open, diverse knowledges and cultures
with Ecological base
ECONOMICS OF PERMANENCE
Earthshastra: Economics as if the earth* mattered
* Of course, the earth includes people!
Values & principles….
• Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies, economies, polities, cultures…)
• Self-reliance & autonomy • Cooperation, solidarity, the ‘commons’ • Rights with responsibilities • Dignity of labour & subsistence • Qualitative pursuit of happiness• Justice • Simplicity, ‘enoughness’ (aparigraha)• Respect for all life forms
Some issues facing Radical Ecological Democracy
•Key agents of transformation? •Creating critical political mass out of scattered movements? •Nature of the State? Challenging the nation-state?•Local-to-global relations and governance? •Individual and collective: how to manage the creative tension?
Radical Ecological Democracy & Degrowth
•Common values: sustainability, equity, justice •Both strive towards holistic transformation •Both require “cross-overs”
•Red & green (Ulrich Brand)•Traditional & modern•Indigenous & others•Global north & south•Reason & spirituality
Radical Ecological Democracy & Degrowth
But in global south …
•Reality of large-scale deprivation; degrowth will not resonate •Needs own vocabularies, broadly in frame of a-growth* or post-growth … diversity of approaches and terms
* Latouche
Challenges …
•Difficulties of cross-cultural exchange: worldviews, languages, concepts of time •Inadvertant power heirarchies: language, resources, communication technologies •Nationalistic barriers •Temptations to ‘replicate’, universalise, rapidly spread good ‘models’
Towards cross-cultural learning and action on alternatives
Understanding of common values but diverse contexts, solutions, pathways, terms
Learning from each others’ innovations, methods, pathways
Joint exploration of equitable global relations … free exchange of cultures, ideas, knowledge, materials, and people …. reducing global north’s impact on global south
Joint exploration of global governance centred on peoples rather than nation-states
• http://radicalecologicaldemocracy.wordpress.com• www.alternativesindia.org
For more information….
Email: [email protected]